Creation and pilot evaluation of a behavioural sleep intervention for student-athletes

Previous research indicates that student-athletes often exhibit sub-optimal sleep health. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of behavioural sleep interventions within this population. Accordingly, this study sought to assess the practicality and evaluate the effectiveness of a created intervention designed to modify sleep behaviours in student-athletes. Fifteen male Rugby Union student-athletes participated in an intervention created using the Behaviour Change Wheel. The delivered intervention included an in-person interactive workshop and personalised visual feedback on sleep practices, incorporating nine different behaviour change techniques from the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy v1. Data were collected using wrist-worn actigraphy and questionnaires on sleep and psychological well-being at baseline and 5 weeks post-intervention. Paired t-tests were used to compare changes in outcome variables. No statistically significant differences were observed in sleep parameters (all p>.05). Small effect sizes indicated a possible increase in daily total sleep time including naps (Hedges’ g=0.25), a phase advance in sleep onset times (g=− 0.34), and a small decrease in Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire-sleep difficulty scores (g=− 0.30). The delivered intervention may be protective against the worsening in sleep health that is often observed across an academic semester. However, a proposed intervention delaying the start of training timing may prove more effective at improving sleep health in this population and warrants future research.